“He told me he has played basketball all his life,” Olajuwon, the Hall of Fame center, recalls on a recent afternoon at his sprawling home in a southwest suburb of Houston. “Facing the basket, shooting threes, this and that, but to complete his game, he needed to get inside.”

This was in the late summer of 2011, and LeBron was still in full seeker mode in the aftermath of the Heat’s NBA Finals collapse against the Dallas Mavericks.

Ripped for disappearing when it mattered most, mocked for still finding himself without a championship eight seasons into his pro career, LeBron reached out to a veritable Mount Olympus of basketball greats as the NBA lockout dragged on.

He met with Magic Johnson, spoke with Isiah Thomas and tried unsuccessfully to set up a chat with Larry Bird.

However, it was the Hakeem Sessions that paid the most obvious dividend.

How many times during the Heat’s 2012 championship run did LeBron turn his back to the basket and spin past a helpless opponent for an easy score?

How many times during his third league MVP season did LeBron exchange the easy and the familiar of the perimeter for the rugged and the raw of the low post?

And how many times in those final three matchups, against the Pacers and the Celtics and the Thunder, did LeBron help the Heat climb back from daunting series deficits with moves right out of the Olajuwon repertoire?

Spinning, dipping, up-and-unders?

Cheetah-like drop steps followed by thunderous slams?

And yes, even a handful of feathery fadeaways along the baseline, a move so familiar Olajuwon will soon be releasing a full line of lifestyle gear, including personally designed basketball shoes, in its honor.

The Dream Shake.

“I saw all of the moves we worked on,” Olajuwon, 49, says proudly. “When you work with a player, the satisfaction is in knowing that now, when it counts, when it is valued, he is executing.”

Last season, his game finally complete, the sport’s most talented player executed as he never had before.

Getting started

LeBron arrived with an entourage.

Four friends in all, including a videographer, accompanied him to Olajuwon’s ranch in Katy, about 45 minutes north of his primary home in Sugar Land.

“He brought a few of his boys,” Olajuwon says, smiling.

Yet, it was clear from the start this was no typical offseason getaway. This, in some sense, was the Last Chance Saloon for a player deemed well overdue in the pursuit of a championship.

Olajuwon, who led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA titles in the Jordanless mid-‘90s, held the secrets of success, particularly when it came to scoring in heavy traffic.

Since retiring a decade ago after 18 seasons, the native of Lagos, Nigeria had given a handful of these high-level clinics to rising and in some cases established stars.

Kobe Bryant was the first, visiting in 2008 to work on his post moves after a Finals loss to the Celtics, then reeling off two more championships the following two years.

“Kobe started all of this,” Olajuwon says.

Dwight Howard visited two straight years, including the week before LeBron in 2011.

This summer, it was Amare Stoudmire of the Knicks and a pair of Nuggets big men: JaVale McGee and Kenneth Faried.

Soon, as a favor to former Rockets teammate Mike Woodson, now coaching the Knicks, Olajuwon will pay a visit to Knicks training camp.

However, when it came to LeBron, something was different than the others.

There was almost a desperation to his visit.

“He was so determined,” Olajuwon says, clenching a fist. “That’s number one. He was always saying, ‘I’m here.’

That pushes me. When somebody wants it so much and is so eager … wow. I was very happy because I knew I could help him.”

The package of moves Olajuwon shares is tweaked for the particular skills of each NBA visitor. LeBron, he quickly surmised, had some of the same physical attributes of Howard, but no one in the modern game, maybe ever, can fully approximate what the Heat star brings to the table.

That’s why they had to go beyond the norm in their sessions.

“What I work on the most is the mentality,” Olajuwon says. “When you come here, we are not big men. We are not trailers. We are sports cars. Speed, quickness, agility.”

Teaching James

It is just the two of us in Olajuwon’s oversized living room, decorated tastefully in light birch flooring and white cloth sofas to go with cathedral ceilings.

A long bank of windows looks out onto a well-manicured back yard and beyond that a peaceful lake.